Bob Eubanks' demo

If you've ever checked the numbers from The Nielsen Company, you know that game shows skew old. This makes for a tough sell to advertisers, but all is not grim. Bob Eubanks of Newlywed Game renown has nestled into a profitable niche with my fellow baby-boomers.

Eubanks does a stage version of Newlywed Game about thirty times a year for "not so newlyweds." That's a polite way to describe older folks who have been married a long time. This story recounts his appearance on Hilton Head island with the stage show.

The questions remain pretty much the same, like the strangest place the couples ever made whoopee. One lady in the Hilton Head show could only answer: "We've never done it anywhere strange. I'd have to say in the bed, and it's been a very long time." Which got some laughs.

Occasionally, contestants from one of Eubanks' old Newlywed Game episodes will turn up for the stage show. On Hilton Head a couple named Cathy and John McCabe, who've been married for 43 years, played the game they first appeared on in 1968. Cathy enjoyed it: "We're still together after all these years. It was fun to play and look back."